Catching Up With Old Friends In Moose Jaw - 2006

My wonderful training days at 2 FTS Moose Jaw are
permanently etched in my mind and I am looking forward to seeing many of the
people who shared those days with me. It was inevitable that paths would cross, from time to
time, with some of those people and our instructors, in the ensuing years. Here are just a few examples:

Ron Dunmall - (deceased) - My Instructor

I was able to take Ron up in a dual CF-100 Mk3 at Cold Lake in 1961, just before the OTU moved to Bagotville. In 1968 he arranged a flight in the CC-115 Buffalo for me at St. Hubert. In 1970 I took Ron from Lahr up to Aalborg, Denmark in the T-33 for an overnight visit.

Denny Lambert - (deceased) - Instructor

Denny was one of our students at the ICP School in 1969

Ron Russell - Instructor

Ron took me up in a CF-104 at Cold Lake in 1965 while I was scrounging quarterly (sanity) flying during my DEW Line tour

Len Benthram - Instructor & Flight Commander

Len took me up in the CF-104 at Cold Lake in 1966 just after my DEW Line tour ended.

Rick Simons - (deceased) - Instructor

In March 1967 I was on leave in Ottawa & had booked Pri 5 (leave) for a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico in a C-130 Hercules. It would return to Ottawa the next day via Bermuda and Shearwater NS. As I was hurrying on foot to the flight line Rick picked me up and asked why I was in such a rush. I told him about my Herc flight but said I was worried about being bumped after we got to Puerto Rico and getting stranded. “You won’t get bumped.” said Rick. “Why not?” said Turbo. “Because I’m the captain.” said Rick! It was a great trip.

Bob Walker

I took Bob up in a CF-100 Mk5 (not a dual, unfortunately) at Uplands in 1958 for a 4-plane wedding fly-past (when we used to do that sort of thing). Later I would “chat” with Bob on the radio when he was an ATC controller at Uplands, using my extinct call-sign, “Baggage 5”, in case other disapproving ATC ears were listening.

Tom Wright

I had a chance meeting with Tom at Grande Prairie airport when I flew in with a T-33 in 1979. A few years later I had another chance meeting with him at Cold Lake – he was now the Scotia Bank manager right here! We spent a lot of time at the mess for TGIF, fishing, and cross-country skiing before he moved to Saskatoon and later back to Moose Jaw. Tom hosted D’Arcy, Don, Fred and myself at Moose Jaw during our mini-reunion in 1999.

Jim Hanson

My former air cadet USA Exchange mate in 1955, and room-mate at Moose Jaw, Jim and I have met several times in Kingston, Toronto, and once here at Cold Lake. He also taped reel-to-reel music for me and sent the tapes to me while I was on the DEW Line from 1965-66 – there was no TV then and the tapes were appreciated and much-used. I still have all 18 tapes.

D'Arcy LeDrew

D’Arcy & I have met many times in Bagotville, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Thunder Bay, North Bay (for the CF-100 retirement in 1981), Moose Jaw (for a mini-reunion in 1999), Calgary (for the AW(F) reunion in 2003), Cold Lake (last August when he arrived on his new Harley), and Kitchener. Nobody lives in Kitchener but I’m glad D’Arcy does. On December 31, 2003 a friend, Lester, and I ripped 2 Canadian (US-registered) T-33s out of storage in Mountain View, ON and ferried them to Kitchener (2 flights in the same day) with an impossibly narrow ferry-permit window. D’Arcy met us both times at the airport (the night landing was quickly changed in my log book to day landing when we discovered the ferry permit specified day VFR flight only). In typical civilian fashion, ACWI hadn’t booked us accommodation since they probably didn’t believe we would actually succeed. Keep in mind that this was New Year’s Eve – D’Arcy and Cathy hosted us and put us both up for the night at their place (displacing their daughter, Sandy, and the children from their bedroom). Since then I have been back to Kitchener twice to fire up those T-33s (for taxi only) and D’Arcy and I charged around the tarmac playing jet pilot again.

Don McQuinn

Don bravely ferried T-33 CF-ADY from Edmonton to Moncton in 1973 with his friend and new owner of the bird, Lester Addie (note the clever registration and yes, this is the same Lester in D’Arcy’s story above). Don phoned me in Shearwater NS and asked if I’d give Lester some dual in his T-33. We did this during two weekends in June 1973 at Halifax Int’l Airport and Lester gave me the plane to take my Great Dane flying twice. The story can be verified at the reunion in September. Don was also going to be the best man at my wedding in Miramichi NB in September 2000 but it never happened (the date did, the wedding didn’t)

Bill Davidson

I had a chance meeting with Bill on Yonge Street in Toronto sometime in the ‘60s while he was flying for CPAir. In 2005 we again met for lunch in Toronto.

Fred Hunter

Fred attended our mini-reunion at Moose Jaw in July 1999.

Terry Harris - (deceased)

Terry was based at North Bay but his wife, Marg, was stuck in Regina attending the Regina School of Nursing. In February 1958 I called Terry from Ottawa and offered him a seat with me in the T-33 to go out west to Saskatoon (the runways at Moose Jaw were still too short). Bob Walker agreed to fly a C-45 from Moose Jaw to Saskatoon to meet us, drop Terry off in Regina, and then take me to Moose Jaw for the weekend. We were on final descent into Saskatoon as Bob was touching/bouncing down there so the timing was superb since it had all been arranged by phone a week earlier. We grabbed our luggage from the T-33, rushed to sign in the T-33, dashed for Bob’s idling C-45, and were just nicely airborne for Regina when Terry wailed, “I left my shoes in the airplane!” Thus it came to pass that Terry and his winter mukluks spent the entire weekend in Regina inside with Marg. A few months later Terry called me from North Bay to tell me, “I’m going to be a daddy!” Hey, if you think I made that up, read Terry’s BIO written by Marg.

Ray Nakonechny - (deceased)

Ray was on the ICP course in 1967

Al Ferridge

Al and I ended up on 428 Squadron at Uplands and flew together on occasion in the CF-100. We were also on the same Jumpmoat II operation in March 1958 ferrying new CF-100s to Belgium.

Doug Veale

I had a chance meeting with Doug at Whitecourt airport in Alberta a week before his retirement as Mobil Oil’s Dash-8 pilot. I was there with my B-26 Invader #13 (C-FZTC) on standby for fighting forest fires so naturally a Turbo Tarling Two-hour Tanker Tour was in order. Doug and I later met in Comox, BC in May 2002 when I was attending 414 Squadron’s retirement of the T-33.